News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
Literary Losses
Award-winning playwright Terrance McNally died March 24, 2020, at the age of 81, from complications of COVID-19. He was a lung cancer survivor, and suffered from COPD. McNally’s work includes the book (script) for the musicals Ragtime, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Full Monty, and Anastasia, as well as a number of plays, film and television scripts, and opera librettos. He won Tony Awards for Best Book for Ragtime and Kiss of the Spider Woman, and for Best Play for Love! Valour! Compassion and Master Class. His other honors include several Guggenheim Fellowships, an Emmy, two Drama Desk Awards, and a pair of Obie Awards.
Obituaries and tributes: CNN; The Guardian; NPR. Bibliography and Biography: Goodreads; Wikipedia
Bookish News
- The Coronavirus Takes Its Toll on Publishing (Publishers Weekly) The ALA cancelled its June conference and advised libraries to close to slow the spread of the virus. ReedPop changed the dates of BookExpo and BookCon to July, but none of the Big Five publishers plans to attend anyway. (And the Javitz Center has been converted to a temporary field hospital for who knows how long, anyway.) Publishers are cutting or fuloughing staff, and debating whether or not to delay release dates of forthcoming books. Bookstores are closing their doors, voluntarily or by order of their states’ governors, though many are offering curbside delivery and online sales. And Diamond Comic Distributors is ceasing delivery of weekly comics to comic book stores.
- B&N Temporarily Closes 400 Outlets in compliance with orders by state and local authorities. The chain has also suspended all in-store author events through the end of April. (Publishers Weekly)
- How Kids’ Lit Is Responding to the Coronavirus (Publishers Weekly)
- Literary Hub Presents: The Virtual Book Channel (Literary Hub)
Worth Reading/Viewing (not all book-related)
- How to sanitize your groceries and take-out, detailed by a family physician. (Jeffrey van Wingen, MD, on YouTube) Clear and sensible. Just bear in mind that he is (and explains that he is) skimping on handwashing only for the video — you should continue washing your hands for the full 20 seconds each time.
- Italy’s Answer to Coronavirus Is a Classic Published Almost 200 Years Ago (Alessio Perrone, Literary Hub)
- How You Can Support Bookstores Through the Coronavirus Pandemic (Literary Hub)
- The Book Industry Charitable Foundation exists to help booksellers and indie bookstores through tough times. They are always happy to accept donations.
Free Fiction Online
A number of authors and companies are offering free fiction to lift your spirits while you’re on lockdown.
Movies & Shows
- YouTube to reduce video quality worldwide to ease strain on internet networks (CNN Business)
- [British] National Theatre productions to be streamed for free on YouTube on Thursdays in April.
More Stay-At-Home Resources
- Bestselling Children’s Author Mo Willems Is Teaching Kids Drawing On YouTube (Bored Panda)
- Open-Access JSTOR Materials Accessible to the Public (University Times) Over 6,000 publications and over 150 journals are available free without a subscription (and have been; this isn’t new.) These are university-level materials, so your college and high school students who have lost access to their institutions’ libraries may find useful research/essay material here.
- A list of authors & illustrators doing online storytime, by day of the week and time. (Kids Activities Blog)
- Huckleberry Moose has some free printables, including several cute paper dolls and a cut-fold-and-paste Easter treat box.
Cool, Fun, and Awesome
- The COYER reading challenge now runs all year! And right now, they’re running a Quarantine Edition.
- This trailer for the forthcoming game Lost Words: Beyond the Page looks really cool!
- Which Children’s Book Is This Famous Line From? is a 25-question quiz. Take it and let me know how you did! (How Stuff Works)
Lists
- Read Your Way Around the World With These 20 Books (Great Big Story)
Bookish Quote
Berls
Thanks for sharing that grocery shopping video. I’m going to have to figure out how I can adapt my home situation to be more careful with the food we get. Maybe I’ll make the floor the dirty and the counter the clean. I have groceries being delivered Wednesday to think about. I wonder if it would work to spray cardboard… Because I don’t know that I can empty everything that comes in cardboard. And damn, every package we’ve received… We don’t dump them right away. *sigh* this is so hard.
Lark_Bookwyrm
It is hard. We’re trying to figure out how to handle boxes and packages, too. Hang in there!
Bea's Book Nook
A note about the National Emergency Library – many of the print books that they have digitalized were done without permission from the publisher or author. They are pirating the books, using the pandemic as their excuse. So I don’t recommend using that “library”.
https://beasbooknook.blogspot.com/2020/03/charity-sunday-tomten-farm-and-sanctuary.html
Bea’s Book Nook recently posted…Friday Memes: No Stone Unturned by Andrea Kane
Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits
Not sure if you’ve seen, but that “National Emergency Library” is not popular with authors right now. It’s essentially book piracy, and it’s claiming to do this because “libraries are shuttered” when all libraries that I know of have still kept their digital services open and are lending ebooks the same as they were before. I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter being absolute jerks to authors, and using that “Emergency Library” as an excuse to do so.
I love the other links, though! Especially the one about Mo Willems teaching kids to draw. 🙂
Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits recently posted…Goodreads TBR Declutter #30
Lark_Bookwyrm
Hi, Nicole! Yes, I saw that, and I have removed the link from the post, and put a link to an article about the piracy in the April 4 News & Notes. I’m kind of surprised the original article I linked to hadn’t checked up on that before posting their article.
Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits
Yeah, I know what you mean. The first time I had seen the NPR link was when I saw authors complaining about it on Twitter. If I had seen it without context first, I don’t think I would have realized that the original article didn’t vet their links either. Very frustrating. 🙂
Lark_Bookwyrm
Frustrating, yes. And surprising; I expect better from NPR.